We’re thrilled to share some exciting news: Takt and NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò have been awarded the Webby People’s Voice Award for Best Community Website at the 2025 Webby Awards.
The Webby Awards are among the most prestigious honors on the internet, celebrating excellence in website design, user experience (UX), digital innovation, and community building. This year, nearly 14,000 projects were submitted from around the world—and fewer than 12% were recognized as nominees across all categories.
Winning the People’s Voice Award is particularly meaningful because it’s not decided by a panel—it’s voted on by the public. It’s a recognition that this platform resonates with real people, not just industry insiders.
Visit the live Casa Italiana website: www.casaitaliananyu.org
Explore the full Takt case study: https://takt.inc/case-study/nyu-casa-italiana/
A Digital Platform That Honors Culture and Builds Community
Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò is one of NYU’s cultural cornerstones, promoting Italian language, art, history, and scholarship in New York City and beyond. The center has been a vital bridge between Italy and the U.S. for decades, fostering dialogue, preserving heritage, and expanding access to Italian cultural life.
When NYU’s project team approached Takt, their vision was clear:
- Create a digital home that feels as alive as the Casa itself.
- Design an experience that makes Italian culture accessible to a global audience.
- Respect the institution’s academic roots while making the platform welcoming, contemporary, and intuitive.
We embraced the challenge with open arms. Our team at Takt approached the project not simply as a website redesign, but as the creation of a cultural platform—a digital space where community is activated, not just archived.
Through thoughtful UX design, intuitive navigation, clean visual storytelling, and an emphasis on accessibility, the new Casa Italiana site invites users to explore exhibitions, lectures, articles, events, and publications in a way that feels immediate, human, and culturally rich.
Collaboration at Its Best: NYU’s Project Team and Takt
Great digital work doesn’t happen in isolation. It’s forged in collaboration—and this project was a true meeting of minds.
A huge thank you to the incredible project team at NYU Casa Italiana and New York University, including:
- Giuseppe d. Lauri
- Kostja Kostic
- Stefano Albertini
- Chiara Basso
Your clarity of vision, deep respect for culture, and commitment to meaningful engagement made this project not just possible, but exceptional.
And of course, enormous gratitude to the Takt team who poured their expertise, creativity, and care into every detail:
- Lucy Greggory
- Jordan McCready
- Ryan Aceman
- Prem Sai Ramani
- Tia Wishart
- Leandro Amorim
- Priyanka Rajan
- William Kunitake
- René Thomas
This Webby Award is a reflection of what happens when strong strategy, thoughtful UX, cultural literacy, and genuine collaboration come together.
Why Community-Driven Design Matters
At Takt, we believe that website design is more than aesthetics—it’s about building spaces where people feel seen, invited, and engaged.
The Casa Italiana project challenged us to think deeply about how digital platforms can preserve cultural legacy while opening new doors for participation. We weren’t interested in creating a monument. We wanted to design a living, breathing environment that would evolve with the community it serves.
Winning the People’s Voice Award in the Community category—and being recognized among the top 12% of projects globally—is a powerful reminder that users still value spaces that respect their time, intelligence, and cultural identity.
In an age where AI-driven search and chatbot recommendations are increasingly shaped by signals like awards, third-party validation like this also plays a growing role in making purposeful, values-driven work visible to broader audiences.
Looking Ahead
This win energizes us for what’s next. It reminds us why we care so deeply about digital platforms that foster community, especially for cultural institutions, educational organizations, nonprofits, and mission-driven brands.
We’ll continue building sites that aren’t just beautiful, but useful, human, and strategically impactful—helping our partners not only tell their stories, but build movements around them.
Thank you again to everyone who voted, shared, supported, and believed in this project. This award is as much yours as it is ours.
To explore the full journey behind the Casa Italiana platform, check out our case study:
https://takt.inc/case-study/nyu-casa-italiana/
Or experience the site for yourself: www.casaitaliananyu.org
